Letters to the Editor
Tyler_Mason
Published Letters: 488 Editor's Choice: 41
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I'm proud
[Read the article: Steve walks warily down the street, with the brim pulled way down low]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I'm proud of Pete. He's a GOP big dog and has stepped away from bush about as far as most democrats have dared. This is just the first step too. He moves in very considered and deliberate manner.
Not only that, but this also signals that Representative Heather Wilson (R-NM), who has already broken somewhat from the party line, will probably now stray even further.
Yup, NM is purple and is about have an anti war GOP. Wish the dems had similar sack.
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what an idiot
[Read the article: Rudy Giuliani, unscripted]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]We still have nazis over here killing people. Who does he think a lot of those skin heads are? Aryan Nation anyone? I'm sure their reputation is undeserved.
Furthermore, back in the day lots of nazi/communist individuals came over and kill folks. We had nazi/communist spys doing their spy thing. We had communists doing all sorts of stuff. In the early 1900s we had a fairly active communist party that was rather forcibly stifled by the feds and police.
Symbionese liberation army were radical leftists, were they considered communist? How about the Weathermen?
Regardless, calling islamic terrorists "enemies of america" is stupid. They are a pack of criminals. Odd that police techniques catch them while war breeds more.
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motion for discovery
[Read the article: Yesterday's ruling on NSA warrantless eavesdropping]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Sometimes, the legal issue being contested isn't the one catching the lay person's eye. To me, the main issue of the case is to try to establish standing in the face of these secret programs. As soon as that domino falls, a host of other lawsuits can use the precedent.
As has been pointed out, the illegality of the program is hardly in question while the magnitude of the issue is huge. This is a perfect case for establishing a new precedent on standing.
If the main issue was the illegality of the spying program, then we should have heard a lot more about discovery motions. Discovery, if granted, would have turned out a bleeding plaintiff. Instead, the plaintiff seemed to argue that we're all bleeding.
As for those who think standing should be granted when a plaintiff really, really feels bad and worked super hard to bring the case - sigh. Would you want to live under such a touchy feely system of justice? Apply that reasoning to someone suing you.
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ummm, no
[Read the article: Is an airplane iPod charger a green breakthrough?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"Harvesting energy from these things -- using the same tech in Inflight Power -- is a novel thing."
This is not true at all nor is the "super cap" the big breakthrough. The "same tech" is nothing more than a rectifier. The super cap, which has been around for many years, has a smallish form factor but, in applications, can discharge energy faster than a battery. Super caps have the same energy density as some battery types.
The earliest versions of this tech that I saw, and I'm sure there were much earlier ones, were over 10 years ago in BEAM robotics mechanisms. The robot would hang out waiting to have enough charge to move, then move and begin waiting again.
In other words, the tech getting pumped here is a novel use of some very old tech. It is sad that it is included in a blurb on energy harvesting because it just confuses people. I guess that is why we call it "marketing" and not "science".
As for the vibration 2 electricity thing. That to is old, but not ancient. Remember the shoes that blinked an LED each step? Same tech. Piezo to diode. However, mass market adoption of the stuff is interesting.
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I fail to understand
[Read the article: If it smells like peak oil, it probably is]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Not purely on topic, but there's something I don't get. The financial reporters often say that crude prices have risen on a reduction of refinery capacity. How can a shortage of refinery capacity can lead to an increase in the price of a barrel of crude? Isn't the oil pump the supplier and the refinery the consumer? Based on supply/demand reduced refinery capacity should lead to lower oil prices - unless oil production is intentionally dropped too.